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Pursuing the mathematical study of axiomatic system themselves leads one to some dangerous, convoluted conclusions, conclusions that would have more than sufficed to get you burned at a metaphorical (or quite possibly a real) stake if they'd even been proposed during Euclid's time, or during the 1300 or so years in which the Church dominated philosophical discourse with its iron hand, its inquisition, and its very ``special'' axiomatic system described in later chapters6.1.
To make a long story short (and relatively simple!), propositions (mathematical statements) can be mapped into numbers, usually called Gödel numbers. For example, they can be encoded by the ASCII6.2 string that represents the statement. Some propositions are used to determine certain arithmetical mappings, for example the truth value of other propositions; these presumed true propositions are then the axioms of the ``theory'' consisting of the set of all enumerated propositions.
We can then write down propositions about themselves - propositions that refer to their own Gödel number, and a strange thing happens. Either the axiomatic system is inconsistent (not all the axioms can be true, although Gödel's theorem of course cannot tell you which ones are true and which ones are false) or there are propositions the truth or falsehood of which cannot be determined by applying the consistent set of axioms - the axiomatic system is thus incomplete. Axiomatic systems with an enumerable set of propositions that can be made self-referential are thus either incomplete or inconsistent.
It is tempting indeed on the philosophical side to make too much of this, just as it is equally tempting to the mathematicians and computer scientists (for whom the theorem makes some very practical statements about computability) to make too little of it. We'll try to come in ``just right''.
First of all, it does impose some fairly stringent limitations on what we can know from science, but most of those limitations are irrelevant to the use of science as a tool for human understanding. The primary lesson I will emphasize below is that it should force us to think carefully about the axioms underlying Natural Philosophy whether or not those axioms are openly or even covertly acknowledged in most philosophical or scientific discourse. This is a primary failure of Russell, who did know some mathematics and should have known better in his philosophical discussions of e.g. inductive reasoning than to do anything but identify the validity of inductive reasoning as an axiom and hence beyond analysis for anything but consistency or completeness. Second, it is an immensely important theorem in reference to languages of all sorts and hence to the most common form of expressive human thought.
In fact, all sentences can be framed as propositions. They can all be mapped into unique Gödel numbers by means of humble ASCII. All human written or spoken language can be encoded/transcribed into sentences, and sentences (like this one) can easily refer to themselves. It therefore seems perfectly reasonable that one can easily get into Gödelian knots when analyzing the truth or falsehood of any statement that can be written or spoken, including all philosophical reasoning, all computer programming, and all statements of physical or natural law, although in the latter case the language of mathematics is perhaps not so simply trapped in the ASCII web.
To put it another way, mathematical and logical and semantic systems that can be written in such a way that they can refer to themselves can easily become fundamentally conflicted, with true but unprovable propositions and propositions that ``sound'' like meaningful hypotheses which in fact cannot be proven true or false and somehow appear to be neither.
Why should all questions (including this one) have answers?
Here is where we can draw some very useful conclusions from Gödel. For any of a wide class of questions, especially including questions that might in any way direct or indirect refer to themselves (like this one) they don't. That is, it is perfectly possible to formulate statements in English (or any other language) that look like questions, sound like questions, fool the mind into thinking that they are questions to the extent that all sorts of time and energy are expended attempting to answer them, but that are not questions (or more generally, hypotheses, propositions, other entities whose truth or falseness or relationships we might wish to explore).
Here's fun mental game that has been around for a rather long while one way or another:
All attempts to parse out a consistent answer instantly kick one into a loop. Somehow the two statements contradict each other, yet the sentences clearly exist and are independently sensible. In fact, the sensation that parsing the language leaves us with is that neither of these statements is true or false and somehow they are both true and false at the same time. Both the Law of Contradiction and the Law of Excluded Middle crash to the ground, and with it nearly everything we thought we ``knew'' on the basis of logic applied to statements that can be written in English.
So much the worse for reason. In addition to things that can be True or False, there can be things that are Neither. Or Both. Or ``Answer Cloudy, Try Again Later''. This is in the context of trivial syllogisms: simple sets of two or three statements that are supposed to be easy to take to an unambiguous conclusion. If reason fails us here, what can we expect when we ask a question like ``Should abortion be legal'' or ``does God send humans who commit murder-suicide to nominally defend their faith to heaven or hell''?
Fundamentally, asking if these statements are true or false isn't a question, it is a ``pseudoquestion''6.3. It looks like a question (or proposition) semantically and grammatically, but because it has no answer it isn't, really, a question.
Note that it doesn't have an answer in the sense that we don't know the answer or that we might hypothesize an answer and have it turn out to be correct or incorrect. The answer isn't ``yes/true'', or ``no/false'', or ``maybe'' or ``I don't know'' or an oscillating sequence of true/false values or even the much beloved ``because'' - it is the great, rushing silence that results in response to a set of mutually self-referential sentence fragments that seem to mean something individually but that, when logically integrated, have no meaning at all. They are the ``undefined'' operations of the algebra, so to speak, the one divided by zero of common discourse.
There are lots of self-referential pseudoquestions or pseudostatements that have logical values that are ``odd'' and lead one to conclude that even in systems of mathematics and logic our ability to create complete axiomatic systems is very much limited. For example, meditate on the statement:
This sentence is unprovable.
Suppose it is false. Then it is, in fact, provable. However, provable things are necessarily true, which is a contradiction. By the good old law of contradiction, it exists and is not false so it must be true. From this Gödel was able to conclude that in (sufficiently complex) axiomatic systems, there exist statements that are true but unprovable, which means that the axiomatic systems cannot be complete (if we accept the Laws of Contradiction and the Excluded Middle, at any rate).
Of course as we just demonstrated with a fundamental anti-syllogism, and have suggegsted in several contexts before, neither of these are unquestionable truth in any logical system that also contains the statement:
This sentence is false.which exists, seems to make ``sense'' semantically, but is neither true nor false. It is (to borrow an idea from a previous chapter) - no-thing. Not-true and not-false. It is a pseudostatement.
All axioms (with a narrow definition of axiom that precludes them in fact being provable from other axioms as theorems), as it turns out, are pseudostatements. This is a tough statement, and those of you who are alertly following the discourse should be saying to yourselves ``Wait a minute, pseudostatements aren't things which could be true or false and we just don't know it, they are things for which it are not in some fundamental sense either true or false. Surely there are statements that we could make as axioms (and hence are assumed to be true) that in fact could be correct, aren't there?''
Well, let's think about that. Let's leave out the Laws of Thought for the moment - we've already seen that two of them appear to be pseudostatements and the Law of Identity I'm perfectly willing to accept as intrinsic truth since it damn near defines the notions of truth and being themselves - a thing is what it is, whatever that might be, if it isn't no-thing.
How about the axioms of mathematics? Clearly these are all pseudostatements. It is neither true nor false that parallel lines never intersect. Rather, it is a statement that we all agree upon as a prior basis for further reasoning, and if we assume that they always intersect all we get is different conclusions, not ``true'' conclusions or ``false'' ones. Looked at this way, it seems closer to being a definition in a mutually (we hope) consistent language than an actual assumption.
How about the axioms of science? As we will see in great detail below, the axioms of science are (among other things) the axioms of mathematics plus such window-dressing as an Axiom of Causality through Natural Law, an Axiom of Spatiotemporal Conservation of Natural Laws, and more and even less rarely stated axioms. Couldn't the Universe in fact be causal? Might it not be the case that Natural Laws exist as a truth independent of whether or not we can ``prove'' it?
Here our knowledge of set theory and number theory comes in extremely handy. Suppose that the Universe is ``like'' one of three kinds of real number. It could be like a rational number, all perfectly ordered internally to the extent that the algorthm that generates its digit string eventually repeats. It could be like an irrational number such as or - a digit string that never repeats but that is nevertheless just as tightly bound to an algorithm that generates its digits as any rational number. It could be like an irrational number with truly random digits - a digit sequence that cannot be generated by any algorithm or iterated map.
The latter class includes the two former classes. Any given rational digit string, however long, has exactly the same chance of being randomly generated as any particular irrational one. How can one resolve the difference between these latter two? It is literally impossible to distinguish a Universe that is completely causal and ordered in its internal structure (like a rational number is causal and ordered) from a universe that is intrinsically completely random but that happens to be completely ordered6.4. In a very real sense, the question of which sort of Universe it is makes no sense, because no matter what the pattern of organization ``within'' the Universe itself, we cannot extrapolate the pattern into the mechanism that produced the Universe. If we try, we merely extend the boundaries of what constitutes ``in the Universe'' according to whatever answer we decide upon or observe (or don't). An utterly causal Universe can itself be the result of causality in a larger meta-Universe or can have no cause (whatever that means) in the larger meta-Universe, and so on ad infinitum.
Ultimately, we are left pretty much with the Law of Identity. The Universe is what it is, at any or all meta-levels. Beyond that, we can assume that it is causal. We can assume that it is acausal. (Or better yet, we can define the patterns that we observe with our senses to be causal or acausal). Either answer can only be ``proven'' with additional axioms or possesses even in existential reality the same general arbitrariness as mathematics, where the notion of ``truth value'' of an axiom does not hold.
How about the axioms of sensate being, of psychology, of perception? Again, identity is fine. Each instant of individual perception (both self-perception and the input from the sensory stream we identify as connecting to the ``real world'') is what it is. That unnamed thing that perceives exists every instant that perception exists. This is not an axiom, it is the essence of empirical observation, it is identity. We are our instantaneous perceptions of the sensate and self.
From this it begins to be clear that all propositions concerning the state of existence except this one (which is really the essential statement of identity, the identity of your being and your perception as an empirical truth- whatever they ``are'' beyond that according to your beliefs) can be formulated as pseudostatements.
Not necessarily self-referential ones - psuedostatements can also easily appear to reference external ideas like ``God'' or ``reality'', or can throw into conflict inconsistent ideas such as ``omnipotence'' and ``omnibenevolence''. As we will show below (recapitulating the work of the masters, but with a bit more attention paid to mathematical/logical rigor): with one exception questions concerning reality are pseudoquestions in the sense that they have no self-evident, rigorously provable answer. They fall into an even more general class of pseudostatements - those that have truth values that vary as one varies the fundamental axioms that underlie the logical system one uses to assign truth values. They are questions like ``How many times do parallel straight lines meet'' - the answers depend on your assumptions, on your axioms. The answers to such a question range from none to an infinity of possible answers or to an axiomatic answer, and an axiomatic answer may or may not (according to Gödel) lead to an non-conflicted, consistent, complete deductive system when combined with other axioms!
One is tempted to meditate upon an axiomatic system containing the axiomatic proposition "Statements that refer to themselves directly or indirectly except this one are not a part of this axiomatic system". ``This statement is false'' is therefore not true or false because it is not a statement, it is a pseudostatement and explicitly excluded from the class of permissible propositions. The laws of Contradiction and the Excluded Middle are then recovered, but only for a relatively tame subset of the set of all propositions.
It is amusing before moving on to recall a couple of the many times Gödelian pseudoquestions like this have been used to destroy Evil Computers in books and movies. The Prisoner, for example, asking ``The General'' the one word question ``Why?'' The very example question above causing an Evil Robot to melt down trying to resolve the sequential cycle in the old television version of Lost in Space. Harlie (in Gerrold's When Harlie was One) concluding that all one needs to answer this sort of question is an infinite amount of time and awareness, as it sets out to perpetuate its own, greatly augmented, existence for that purpose. One can only imagine Harlie in the infinitely distant future being asked if there is a God and replying ``There is now...''
Hah. Good Luck Harlie.
All of this digression is really only intended to show that axioms, far from being ``self-evident truths'' or even the gentler ``established principles'' are, in both mathematics and derived usage in physics, science, philosophy and other disciplines neither more nor less than unprovable assumptions - indeed in many cases pseudostatements where we don't really know what it means to assert that the statement is true. Furthermore, even with one's axioms in hand, axiomatic reasoning is far less powerful than was imagined until the 1900's, and there is a very serious risk, nay, a near certainty, that any nontrivial axiomatic system proposed as a basis for understanding ``everything'' will be neither complete nor consistent and that in any event it cannot be both.
There is nothing more dangerous or powerful in the philosophical process than selecting one's axioms, especially given that they are nearly invariably expressed in sloppy old human language. There is nothing more useless than engaging in philosophical, religious, or social debate with another person whose axioms differ significantly from one's own.
To reiterate, an axiom is at heart something that cannot be proven. It is itself a pseudostatement whose truth or falsehood cannot even be addressed except, of course, with any of a variety of other pseudostatement axioms and their associated axiomatically proven or disproven propositions that will soon have all the participants in any debate melting down in a puff of smoke if the resulting system of ``reason'' is inconsistent or, like Harlie, writing grants for the purpose of perpetuating existence for the rest of eternity while working out the complete ``answer'' if it is incomplete. An axiom is a free choice, a denumerable selection out of a nondenumerably infinite space of possibilities, upon the back of which we choose to derive our system of so-called reasoning, dealing with contradictions and inconsistencies as best we can - or just ignoring them.
How can I convince you of the importance of coming to a full, conscious realization of the truth of this observation in real human affairs? For philosophies, expressed as social and religious memes, have an enormous impact on our daily lives and indeed are the very forces of history that have led the world to have the shape it has. Problems within our world very often have their origin in the fundamental problems - inconsistencies and incompletenesses - in our underlying axioms, along with our memetic tendency to treat our social and religious axioms as being ``true'' beyond all examination or consideration.
To understand this, we have to take a journey of two parts. The first is through a (partly historical) exploration of the development of the fundamental axioms of The Cosmic All, with David Hume6.5 as our highly skeptical bus driver, Bertrand Russell6.6 as our tour guide, and accompanied by the Three Stooges: Descartes6.7, Berkeley6.8, and Kant6.9. We might talk a wee bit about Plato (respectfully) and a few others (not so respectfully at all) but I wouldn't inflict a reading of even the Republic on anyone else who wasn't totally into it, in which case you've probably already read it five times and annotated all the margins and highlighted the significant passages.
The second is through a very much current exploration of genetic optimization6.10, complex systems6.11, and social geneto-memetics6.12. This is some more of the new math stuff that hasn't really been understood by modern philosophers and metaphysicians. Naturally, I won't omit using a wee bit of modern physics as well, being as how I am a physicist, and physics in the twentieth century did such a lovely job of utterly destroying so much supposedly rational nineteenth century philosophical reasoning about our Cosmic All.
Yes, sorry, pretty technical, but I will do everything I can to make it all very simple, just as Russell did in his little book.


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"Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations" has been retired and is no longer maintained. For more information, please see the full notice.
Rush-Bagot Pact, 1817 and Convention of 1818
The Rush-Bagot Pact was an agreement between the United States and Great Britain to eliminate their fleets from the Great Lakes, excepting small patrol vessels. The Convention of 1818 set the boundary between the Missouri Territory in the United States and British North America (later Canada) at the forty-ninth parallel. Both agreements reflected the easing of diplomatic tensions that had led to the War of 1812 and marked the beginning of Anglo-American cooperation.
U.S. political leaders had long expressed interest in disarming the Great Lakes and had proposed such a measure during negotiations that led to the 1794 Jay Treaty, but British officials had rejected this proposal. During the War of 1812, both Great Britain and the United States had built fleets of ships on lakes Erie and Ontario, and fought many battles in the region. Near the end of the war, U.S. forces had achieved dominance over the Lakes. After the war, both powers were wary of one another's military strength and a postwar shipbuilding race ensued. However, both countries also wished to reduce their military expenditures. Unfortunately, the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, contained no disarmament provisions. However, it did establish commissions to resolve contested areas along the border (as determined by the 1783 Treaty of Paris) between the United States and British North America.
Although tensions between Great Britain and the United States remained high along the Great Lakes, overall relations improved. Postwar trade rebounded, and British political leaders increasingly viewed the United States as a valuable trading partner, while also realizing that British North America would be expensive and difficult to defend should another war break out. When U.S. Minister to Great Britain, John Quincy Adams, proposed disarmament on January 25, 1816, British Foreign Secretary Viscount Castlereagh responded favorably. The British Government had already dispatched Charles Bagot as Minister to the United States with the intention of improving relations between the two countries.
Bagot met with Secretary of State James Monroe informally, and finally reached an agreement with his successor, Acting Secretary Richard Rush. The agreement limited military navigation on the Great Lakes to one to two vessels per country on each lake. The U.S. Senate ratified the agreement on April 28, 1818. The British Government considered a diplomatic exchange of letters between Rush and Bagot sufficient to make the agreement effective.
In addition to the issue of military navigation of the Great Lakes, the British Government was also open to negotiations regarding a number of other points of contention that had not been resolved by the Treaty of Ghent. Several commissions met to settle border disputes along the U.S. border with British North America. One of these commissions awarded several islands off the coasts of Maine to New Brunswick. However, negotiators deadlocked over other parts of the northern borders of Maine and New Hampshire. That issue would not be resolved until the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which also resolved the border between Canada and northeastern Minnesota.
Several other separate committees determined other stretches of border that negotiators at the 1783 Treaty of Paris had drawn with faulty maps. The commissions divided the St. Lawrence and other rivers connecting the Great Lakes to allow both countries navigable channels, and handed Wolfe Island near Kingston, Ontario to the British and Grosse Île near Detroit to the United States. British and U.S. negotiators also agreed to make present-day Angle Inlet, Minnesota the end point of the 1783 border and to allow the Convention of 1818, concluded by Rush and Albert Gallatin, to determine the border to the west of that point.
While these commissions debated border issues, Rush and Gallatin concluded the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 that, among other things, confirmed permanent U.S. rights to fish off Newfoundland and Labrador. The Convention also made provisions for Russian mediation over the issue of escaped slaves in British hands (U.S. slaveowners were eventually provided monetary compensation) and also determined that the border from Angle Inlet would run south to the forty-ninth parallel, and then due west to the Rocky Mountains. The Oregon Country would remain open to both countries for ten years.
Although the agreements did not completely settle border disputes and trade arrangements, the Rush-Bagot agreement and the Convention of 1818 marked an important turning point in Anglo-American and American-Canadian relations.

subset: commoncrawl


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Holiday Reminder
Like you, the holidays always make me think about those who are less fortunate. Last year around this time, I wrote a"Holiday Reminder" column about the health reform debate and people's economic difficulties. The drive to pass the health reform law was struggling, and it would struggle even more in the following weeks after the senatorial special election in Massachusetts. I wondered whether we had lost track of what propelled health care to the top of the domestic agenda in the first place — people's concerns about paying for health care in the middle of a deep recession.
Well, a year later, as we move through another holiday season, much has changed, yet much also remains the same. Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — spurred in part by reports of big increases in individual health insurance premiums — yet the country continues to debate the merits of the law. We are technically out of the recession, though that means little to the millions of Americans who are out of work or who continue to struggle with their health care bills. Our new tracking poll shows that twenty-five percent of the public, thirty-six percent of low-income people, and forty-eight percent of the uninsured report problems paying their health care bills over the past year. Fifty-four percent of the American people — and a whopping eighty-five percent of the uninsured — report putting off medical care they believe they need because of cost during the same period, including skipping recommended treatments and not filling prescriptions.
More than half of the American people report a "serious" economic problem, such as difficulty getting a decent job, losing money in the markets, taking a cut in pay, or problems paying for health care, gas, rent or the mortgage. More than half! Difficulty paying for health care ranks fourth on the list of "serious problems experienced as a result of the downturn", behind job-related issues and losing money in the markets. You can see the data in these three charts:
Click on charts to enlarge.
The public's concerns about paying their health care bills were the reason we had the health reform debate in the first place. And, as I wrote a year ago, this is also where the health reform message went off track. When average Americans could not easily connect the legislation to their everyday problems of paying bills and making ends meet, they became more susceptible to messages from opponents ready to define the legislation in ways that were scary to the public. However, I am not entirely sure that different messaging would have made a big difference. Views on health reform largely track partisan and ideological differences in the country, and proponents and opponents were always going to play to people's emotions — whether about the insurance industry (proponents) or about government (opponents). But, helping people understand how the reform law affects their everyday lives might have made a difference at the margin during the debate. And it could continue to, since the law and its implementation obviously remain hotly contested. I'm not sure people understand the degree to which expansions in Medicaid and tax credits will help lower income and working people pay for health insurance. Of course, these changes aren't scheduled to take effect until 2014.
In the meantime, new rules go into effect next year that require insurers to spend a minimum percentage of their premium revenue on medical care rather than administration and profits, or pay rebates to consumers. And many states are taking more aggressive action to try to hold down premium increases. Their authority and capacity varies from state-to-state, and their efforts are generally limited to the non-group and small employer markets, but several states have had success holding back premium increases (at least temporarily). When states reject proposed rate increases, either insurers or providers have to divide up a smaller pie. The ensuing struggle between the two plays out differently depending upon the relative market power each has in a particular state or region. It would, of course, be better to directly address the fundamental causes of rising health care costs than to limit premium increases, which is the cost control equivalent of plugging a broken steam pipe: the pressure continues to build. But our ability to do that is limited — in some cases by politics and in other cases by how little we as experts know about which delivery and payment reforms will bear fruit — and current efforts will take many years to pay off. In the meantime these efforts by the states err on the side of putting people first, and could meaningfully help some people and small businesses by trying to place reasonable limits on the premium increases they pay.
Whatever your view of the health reform law or of these new state regulatory efforts, our December survey shows that large numbers of people continue to struggle with health care costs and that lower income and uninsured people struggle most of all. In Washington and in health policy circles, debates about how to control health costs are often intensely ideological. The numbers reported in our polls show why people look at health care costs very differently from the combatants in these debates. They are struggling and just want some relief. I doubt they would care much whether the strategy was a liberal, conservative or middle of the road one if they believed it would help them pay their bills.


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I'm continually surprised that TiVo isn't enjoying some kind of Apple-esque success right now. They're certainly firing on all cylinders. Here's the latest advance:
TiVo, the creator of and leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced the new availability of several exciting feature upgrades and product support for TiVo Series 3 and TiVo HD customers. The news includes the availability of external storage (E-SATA) from Western Digital, the introduction of Multi-Room Viewing and TiVoToGo availability and the new feature of progressive downloads - all for Series 3 and TIVo HD subscribers.
- The My DVR Expander external hard drive is capable of storing up to 600 hours of standard-definition (SD) or up to 65 hours of high-definition (HD) television programming based on 500 GB of hard drive storage.
- This is current the only TiVo Verified external storage device.
- The My DVR Expander is compatible with both TiVo HD and TiVo Series3 DVRs.
- WD's My DVR Expander external hard drive is available now in the United States from Best Buy retail stores and by ordering online from TiVo.com/store.
- MSRP for the My DVR Expander drive with 500 GB is $199.99 USD.
And not to be a jerk about it, but compare all the TiVo-related announcements this year with the relative silence on the Media Center front. We heard about new Media Center Extenders and... that's it. Yawn.Multi Room Viewing (MRV)
- MRV allows you to transfer programming between TiVo DVRs.
- It now includes support for Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs, meaning you can share shows between Series2, Series3, and TiVo HD boxes.
- Only SD recordings may be sent from a Series3/TiVo HD to a Series2.
- TiVo HD and Series 3 users can now enjoy TiVoToGo functionality.
- TiVoToGo™ transfers are available to all networked TiVo DVRs. This service enhancement allows users to transfer programs from a TiVo box to a desktop or laptop PC.
- Using TiVo Desktop software for Windows or Roxio Toast 8 or Popcorn 3 for Mac OS, TiVo subscribers can now transfer recordings from their Series 3 and TiVo HD boxes for playback, DVD burning, or converting to portable device formats on personal computers.
Progressive Downloads
- The progressive download feature gives TiVo subscribers the ability to watch TiVoCast content while it is still downloading, including Amazon UnBox on TiVo.
- When a download begins, the TiVo box checks the speed of the download, and calculates whether you can begin playback. If the download speed is going faster than playback speed, it will let users start playback immediately.
- If the download is slower, it will wait until users have enough of the program "buffered" on disk to be able to play it from start to finish without hitting the end of the buffer, and then let you start playback.
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Fiction Reviews
Book Review: Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm
- Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm: A New English Version
- Viking Adult, 400 pp.
In the version of Cinderella recounted by the Brothers Grimm, there is no fairy godmother. Instead, the beleaguered Cinderella plants a hazel twig on her mother's grave, which grows into a tree. The magical gifts that enable her to attend the prince's ball appear from the trees branches, and her supernatural helpers are the wild birds she calls down while standing beneath it. When the prince comes looking for the mysterious princess who left her slipper behind, Cinderella's stepsisters cut off pieces of their own feet to make the slipper fit. Twice the prince rides off with the wrong bride; each time, a pair of doves perched in the hazel tree sing him a warning, beginning "Roocoo-coo, roocoo-coo/ There's blood in the shoe." And at the end, the doves peck out the stepsisters' eyes, as punishment for their "wickedness and falsity."
This is the version of the story Philip Pullman retells in his new translation of Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, out just in time for the bicentennial of the brothers' original book. With its violence and mystery, its suggestions of the dead mother's spirit acting on the heroine's behalf through such primal agents as wild trees and birds, the German story can seem a world away from the familiar version. The more proper and pretty version told by Frenchman Charles Perrault has long been our standard.
Those who know the original versions of the Grimms' tales – in which the frog prince is disenchanted by being hurled against a wall, rather than kissed, and Rapunzel finds herself pregnant with twins – can rarely resist the temptation to see them as more primitive and authentic, closer to the bone and closer to the original source. Yet even a cursory glance at the history of fairy tales complicates this view. As Marina Warner demonstrates in her magisterial study From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers, the paths leading back from these stories are as likely to bring us to literary creations of the Renaissance as to ancient legends. Perrault's elegant baroque variations on the same material, ornamented with worldly-wise rhymes explaining what the clever and ambitious may learn from them, predate the Grimms' tales by more than a hundred years.
When Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters try to keep her from the ball by throwing lentils into the ashes on the hearth, and demanding that she pick them out, there are echoes of one of the tasks assigned to Psyche in Apuleius's The Golden Ass. Like Cinderella, Psyche has animal helpers who will complete the task for her. An ancient detail, certainly, (Apuleius was writing in the second century AD), but still an artifact of literary culture.
The pecked-out eyes, on the other hand, seem to be late invention of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm themselves, inserted into the 1819 edition of the tales (the original edition appeared in 1812). They are part of a pattern in which they downplayed sexual elements of the tales in later editions, but made up for it by spicing them with additional violence.
So who's to say what's "authentic" in these tales? Their constituent parts have been ceaselessly borrowed and exchanged, recombined and reinvented; their protean nature may well be their defining quality. This is the spirit in which Pullman (Author of The Golden Compass and its sequels, among other titles) approaches his new translation. He opens his introduction with an extended quotation from James Merrill's long poem, The Changing Light at Sandover, in which Merrill calls the language of fairy tales "A tone licked clean /Over the centuries by mild old tongues/Grandam to cub, serene and anonymous." This is the tone Pullman strives for, and largely achieves – neither too modern nor too archaic, too formal nor too colloquial.
Pullman is willing to take certain liberties with the telling, within the bounds of tradition. In "Cinderella," the heroine's three magic ball gowns are progressively the color of starlight, moonlight, and sunlight, a detail which crops up in many related stories in which a heroine attends a ball in disguise. It's often a part of Donkeyskin and its variations, tales which begin with the heroine's father, a king, wanting to marry his own daughter. Now little known in the English-speaking world, it's still a standard in France. (A family movie, starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Marais, and Delphine Seyrig was made of the tale in 1970; the extras on the current DVD, featuring French intellectuals discussing the tale's meaning, and the filmmakers quizzing a contemporary audience of Parisian kindergarteners about the father/daughter plot, offer a wonderful snapshot of the difference between Anglophone and Francophone thought-worlds.)
Pullman concludes each tale with his own comments on the story and its translation, as well as the Grimms' own source for the tale, a brief list of similar stories, and even its ATU number, indicating its place in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification of tale types used by scholars. His aim in selecting the tales seems to have been to present the reader with a representative sampling, from the cosy animal story "The Musicians of Bremen" to the grisly, glumly religious tale of "The Girl with No Hands."
Some are strong stuff indeed by contemporary standards. The collection includes "The Juniper Tree," in which a wicked stepmother tricks her stepdaughter into believing she's accidentally decapitated her younger brother, whose corpse the stepmother then cooks and feeds to the children's father (an echo of Medea?). Margaret Atwood cites "The Juniper Tree" as one of her favorites in her excellent essay on the Grimms' tales, "Of Souls as Birds." ( However, I wonder if some of the poetic seasonal imagery Atwood interprets in archetypal terms may be attributed to the Grimms' source, German Romantic painter Philipp Otto Runge.)
I was somewhat disappointed that another of Atwood's favorites – and now one of mine – was not included: "Fitcher's Bird," a lively and evocative variant of Bluebeard in which the heroine saves herself by dressing a skeleton in her bridal garments, and disguising herself as a bird using honey and a feather bed. (As Atwood rightly notes, the Grimms' tales do not universally endorse female passivity).
Pullman also includes "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers," more commonly known in English as "The Boy Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was," a tale which, Marina Warner notes, became a favorite of the Nazis. Playing on associations like these, Rebecca West infused her journalistic account of the Nuremberg Trials (published in 1946 as "Greenhouse with Cyclamens") with fairytale imagery inspired, perhaps, by the turreted and spired neo-Gothic industrialist's mansion in which she and other journalists were housed. Musing on the house, she wonders if the role of fairy tales in German high culture of the nineteenth century contributed to the horrors of the twentieth century, as "the German imagination was at once richly fecundated and bound to a primitive fantasy dangerous for civilized adults." Margaret Atwood writes of how, on the other side of the Atlantic, the dark side of the tales provided an apt reflection of the wartime world she was born into.
It's worth noting these previous uses of the Grimms' tales as we move into another national debate about the confrontation of violence and innocence, safety and fear. Atwood writes at length about how the tales spoke to her own unspoken childhood fears of death and loss, providing a kind of solace through their spells and transformations. (Bruno Bettelheim famously developed similar ideas into The Uses of Enchantment, a Freudian analysis of the tales' value to children).
The value of Pullman's new translation, I believe, lies in his willingness to encompass the darkness as well as the light in the tales, and his determination to retell them in language that does not belong to any particular historical moment or sensibility. The tales, with their interchangeable parts, their eager borrowings from whatever sources lie at hand, have never been anything but a work in progress. The achievement of the Brothers Grimm, two hundred years ago, was not so much to freeze them in a particular form, but to make them even more widely available. This is what Pullman aims to do, as well. He encourages those who wish to retell the tales to do so: "The story-sprites," he says, "are willing to serve whoever has the ring, whoever is telling the tale."
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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
We begin this hour in the Middle East, first Iran. This week, the religiously based Guardian Council is expected to announce the final roster of candidates in that country's presidential election. Even though Iranians will go to the polls in less than a month, some of the candidates for the presidency are still waiting for approval to run for office.
Among the hopefuls is Iranian-American Rutgers University Professor Hooshang Amirahmadi. He joined me to talk about his ideas for the future of Iran. And I began by asking why a professor who has been living in the U.S. for more than 30 years is qualified to lead Iran?
HOOSHANG AMIRAHMADI: Well, several things. First, the world has changed. We are all nomads. I'm talking to you from London. Second, there are seven million Iranians now outside the country. I think they also have a right to their homeland. Third, I believe that the international community is as important as the national context for managing a society. I have been outside the country and have learned a lot about what is happening internationally, so then I can take that experience back to Iran.
Also, I haven't been your normal ex-patriot. I have gone back and forth to Iran almost every year a few times. You know, so again, Iran has never left me.
MARTIN: In the '90s, you started an organization here called the Iranian-American Council, which was essentially a think tank. And you hosted all kinds of big Washington names - now Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Do you think that these very close Washington ties are something that's really going to endear you to Iranian population that elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad twice; someone who's famously anti-American?
AMIRAHMADI: Well, I believe the Iranian population is not anti-American at all. They are tired of war, of sanction, of threats. They just want a normal life. No nation on the Earth has ever become democratic in the last 200 years that did not have diplomatic ties with the U.S. It just doesn't exist. I think they have a understand it, I hope that the leaders in Tehran also understand that. I'm not sure.
MARTIN: Let me ask you, the U.S. and Iran have been locked in a stalemate for years and years over Iran's disputed nuclear programs. How would you change the dynamic?
AMIRAHMADI: The biggest problem between U.S. and Iran is lack of trust. Hooshang Amirahmadi, that is me, can bring trust back.
MARTIN: Let me ask you this though, do you believe Iran does have the right to a peaceful nuclear program?
AMIRAHMADI: Yes, it does. I think Iran has the right to a peaceful nuclear program within obligations. And the most important part of that obligation is transparency. But it does not mean that if you have the right you should do it. I would preserve the right 100 percent, but I would also talk to the Iranian people, to the experts, to the international community to see where I should put my pennies.
MARTIN: Is your campaign symbolic or do you think you have a real chance at this?
AMIRAHMADI: I honestly think this is not symbolic. There's no question about it. But whether I have a real chance, I don't know. I'd like to think that the system in Tehran is rational, it's self-interested, that it understands that Hooshang Amirahmadi's candidacy is to its best interest. I am not going to change the regime. I think we can preserve the system and change the country into something great.
MARTIN: Hooshang Amirahmadi, he is an Iranian-American professor at Rutgers University. He wants to run to be the next president of Iran. He is waiting for the Iranian Guardian Council to approve his candidacy. He joined us from our studios in London.
Mr. Amirahmadi, thank you so much for your time.
AMIRAHMADI: My pleasure, Rachel. Thanks for having me and for this opportunity. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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To reach an understanding of this issue, I asked a senior member of our staff who has served many policy roles within the leadership of the American College of Physicians, the Illinois Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, and served as a founding fellow of the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), Joseph V. Messer, MD, MACC. Joe is widely respected in the cardiovascular policy circles and has worked extensively on such things as "Appropriateness Use Criteria" and performance measures for cardiology. He carries a unique understanding of the challenges inherent to bureaucratic methods to measure quality care and (importantly) the limitations of creating such systems. Joe is a luminary in many respects and thought hard about the question I posed him. His response was both eloquent and insightful. With his permission, I am publishing his response to me so others might enjoy Joe's perspective on why hospital systems want to "align" with the MOC process. Here is what he wrote:
Wes, your question yesterday at our Cath Conference started me thinking. Since I have decided not to go the MOC route, haven't given it much thought. Here are my ideas:Ugh. Depressing. Sadly, I think he's correct.
Both the Feds and the Hospital Systems prefer a single payer system. Several years ago at an ACC conference, the CMS representative told me their goal was to pour all the money into a single funnel and let healthcare systems worry about the distribution, providing a significant source of "handling" fees for the systems.
CMS and hospital systems seek alignment. The "funnel" analogy is one example. Further, CMS has very limited authority to define and require demonstration of quality from providers. They will encourage the hospital systems to handle this role, and will provide the $$ for same - thus more revenue for hospital systems, not unlike current support for residence and fellow training programs.
As we move toward a single payer system, hospital systems will continue their effort to control physicians - the most important of the distribution recipients in healthcare other than the systems themselves. By ultimate controlling MD's they can take a larger piece of the pie for themselves. Increasingly impotent physicians will have little recourse, since the public consumer now values convenience and low cost over quality.
Supporting MOC assists the hospital systems in controlling MD's. Systems will use public opinion, in part, as a tool in this effort. Hospital systems will vigorously claim that MOC assures higher quality. By requiring and advertising that all system employed MD's are MOC certified the systems will have another weapon against the "private practice" MD, many of whom will not pursue the MOC course, many of whom will be "concierge MD's" and the most vocal opponents of hospital systems.
Ultimately, I believe the hospital systems want to control the certification process. By supporting the MOC initiative they will likely destroy the ABIM as it loses its physician support because of MOC. The specialty societies are lukewarm at best about MOC's and I hear increasing criticism of ABIM for its ulterior financial motivations. Some specialty societies are receiving similar criticism for the fees they charge for educational materials crafted to meet MOC requirements. Thus, ACC and others may well suffer with the ABIM for not vigorously opposed MOC in its current form.
Marginalizing the special societies has already begun. It is very clear that employed cardiologists find less interest in the ACC. The largest grant the ACC has ever received just went to two Chapters - Wisconsin and Florida - to test local, grassroot proposals for health care financing. ($15.8 million over 3 years). National ACC supported this project for a while, but then fell away when the leadership lost interest. My concern here is that the ACC/AHA/STS/HRS/SCAI remain key supporters of quality, appropriate use and performance measurement. If they are significantly weakened by all of these issues - MOC, physician employment, decreased specialty influence in CMS and Congress, the hospital systems will surely move into the vacuum to control education and quality definition to their advantage.
But, when all is said and done, I doubt that the incoming crop of physicians care. In a recent survey (2-3 years ago) the primary motivation of medical school applicants was "job security".
Thanks for your insights, Joe -


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4th Haskell Hackathon April 11-13, 2008 Gothenburg, Sweden
We are pleased to announce the 4th Haskell Hackathon!
The event will be held over 3 days, April 11-13, at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The plan is to hack on Haskell infrastructure, tools, libraries and compilers. To attend please register, and get ready to hack those lambdas!
Code to hack on:
* Hackage * Cabal * Porting foreign libraries * Bug squashing * You decide!
Before you attend, do start thinking and familiarizing yourself with 1 or 2 projects you wish to work on, to ensure no wasted effort during the Hackathon. A list of possible projects is available on the website.
We ask that you register you interest. Follow the instructions on the registration page:
Once you've registered, do add your info to the attendees self-organizing page,
if you are looking to share costs, or meet up prior to the hackathon, with other attendees.
N.B. if you already expressed interest via the wiki, do confirm by registering `officially' anyway.
Important dates
Hackathon: April 11-13, 2008
Björn Bringert Thomas Schilling Lennart Kolmodin


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( 1 Double Bed & 2 Twin Single Beds )
'The Brancaster' is a detached property located in a small & select development called ' The Pastures ', just off the Blakeney Quayside.
The Brancaster offers parking for two cars ( many local cottages cannot offer proper off road parking) , a private garden to sit out in, and is just a two minute walk from the Quay.
The interior is spacious and light when compared with many older properties, and is well furnished and equipped ready for your occupation. There is electric heating, hot water, and double glazing.
An entrance hall leads on to a good sized living room with open fire place and a dining area, fitted kitchen with appliances, two double bedrooms ( 1 Double Bed & 2 Twin Single Beds ), and one bathroom and one separate shower room..
Blakeney is a very sought after North Norfolk destination, it has a number of hotels offering places for you to eat in the evening, two local pubs that serve food, a highly regarded fish restaurant ' The Moorings ' , a mini supermarket, deli, fish mongers, and a number of little shops.
Blakeney harbour is a small quayside with boats moored up, and boat trips are usually available.
There are lovely walks including out to Blakeney Point famous for it's seal colony.
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April 4, 2012
Beach Museum to host film showings today
The Beach Museum of Art will host two film showings beginning at 7 p.m. today.
The first, "Proteus," is an animated documentary that explores the 19th century's engagement with the under sea world through science, technology, painting, poetry and myth. The central figure of the film is biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel, who found in the depths of the sea an ecstatic and visionary fusion of science and art.
The second film, "West Bank Story," is a witty and musically enjoyable take-off on "West Side Story" that features hapless lovers from Palestinian and Israeli families who run rival fast-food restaurants. It won an Academy Award in 2006 for best live-action short. The film uses humor to help viewers take a serious look at ethnic hatred.
After each film there will be a question and answer session with Yuval Ron, who composed the original score for both films.


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A former Olympic skier from B.C. has filed a class-action lawsuit against Alpine Canada, alleging the skiing organization failed to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by a coach.
Allison Forsyth, who competed in the 2002 Winter Games, is seeking to become the representative plaintiff of a certified class of former elite skiers who claim they were psychologically, physically and sexually assaulted, harassed and abused by their coach, Bertrand Charest, while they were members of the Canada's national junior skiing team.
Alpine Canada is the national governing organization for alpine, para-alpine, and ski-cross racing in Canada. Charest was employed by Alpine Canada as coach from 1996 until 1998.
In 2015, Charest was arrested and charged with 57 counts of alleged sexual offences – including 23 counts of sexual exploitation of minor while in a position of authority or trust – against 12-18-year-old female skiers between 1991 and 1998. In 2017, Charest received a 12-year sentence after he was convicted by the Superior Court of Quebec of 37 charges. He is appealing the decision and has been released on bail.
According to a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court, Forsyth claims that between 1996 and 1998 she and other female members of the ski team were subjected to "systemic abuse, harassment and assault" by Charest and that Alpine Canada is "vicariously liable" for his sexual misconduct.
At the age of 17, Nanaimo's Forsyth joined the national ski team and was coached by Charest during the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons. According to court documents, upon joining the team, Forsyth claims she quickly learned Charest "had a reputation of inappropriate interactions" with female athletes.
In the summer of 1996, while at a training camp in Whistler, Forsyth claims Charest "frequently" slapped her buttocks and commented on her appearance. She claims that in 1997, after hearing a rumour that Charest was involved a relationship with an unnamed athlete, who was a minor at the time, she confronted him. She claims he admitted to the relationship but "wanted it to end."
RELATED: Ex-B.C. Olympian Allison Forsyth says Bertrand Charest affair was covered up
Forsyth alleges Charest "immediately" began paying more attention to her, telling her that he could develop her into "a great athlete" and eventually began favouring her and touching her an "intimate manner." Forsyth claims that as a highly competitive 18-year-old who wanted to be the best, she believed the only way to receive the best coaching was to agree to Charest's pressure to have sexual interactions with her.
Forsyth's civil claim goes on to detail numerous instances of alleged inappropriate behaviour by the coach.
In one alleged incident in 1997, Forsyth claims she was inside a bathroom stall at a hotel in Austria, where the team had been training, when Charest entered, "forced her up against the wall" and sexually assaulted her.
Charest continued to abuse, manipulate and coerce Forsyth throughout 1997 according to the civil claim, which alleges the former coach demanded sexual interaction with her by "using her success or failure" as a skier as leverage.
Forsyth claims Charest repeatedly told her he was in love with her, asked her to marry him, isolated her from her teammates and demanded the relationship be kept private. She also claims there were multiple sexual interactions, including intercourse.
The claim accuses Alpine Canada of failing to investigate the coach's alleged behaviour, explaining that there were long-standing rumours of his treatment of women and failing to respond immediately to reports of sexual misconduct. She also argues Alpine Canada failed to protect female athletes and disregarded its own policies and procedures.
Forsyth claims once she informed Alpine Canada of Charest's behaviour, the organization told her "she would have to be more careful or the team would lose sponsors." She claims she also overheard Alpine Canada employees discuss how they could address the situation without generating publicity in a bid not to lose sponsors and that the organization told athletes not to talk about the situation.
Charest was eventually allowed to resign from his position with Alpine Canada, but his licence was never revoked.
Forsyth, in her claim, says she experienced and continues to experience anxiety as well as physical, emotional and psychological trauma.
In a statement to the News Bulletin, Alpine Canada said it is reviewing the claim.
"We are reviewing the details of the lawsuit filed by Allison Forsyth relating to events that occurred in the 1990s. Alpine Canada applauds the tremendous courage Allison and other women have shown in coming forward and speaking out. Their determination and commitment to helping drive change is inspiring," the statement noted. "For the past 20 years, Alpine Canada has been working to ensure a safe environment for all athletes, and we are continually reviewing best-practices with regards to athlete safety and security."
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With Ryan Mallett still on the burner as a potential trade target for quarterback-needy teams, the New England Patriots are keeping their backup in bubble wrap.
NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday that New England is expected to hold Mallett out of Thursday's final preseason game against the New York Giants, per a Patriots source.
With potential trade opportunities down the road, the risk of injury was deemed too high, the source told Rapoport. That means rookie Jimmy Garoppolo will start and likely go the distance.
Rapoport was told the Patriots won't deal Mallett until they feel comfortable with Garoppolo as their backup. Thursday will go a long way toward making that decision.
The Mallett trade rumors have burned bright all offseason, but quarterback chaos in a handful of NFL cities makes moving the lanky passer a greater reality than ever before.
Losing Sam Bradford to another season-ending ACL tear would have left the Rams as a potential candidate for Mallett's services. However, Rapoport reported Monday evening that St. Louis trading for a quarterback is "unlikely, mainly because of what they would have to give up."
The Texans remain in the picture, and hold the advantage of the No. 1 waiver priority if Mallett is ultimately cut.
The Patriots, though, would love to get something in return for the fourth-year passer who looked entirely average in preseason play but comes equipped with the size and build teams love at the position.
Hang on tight, friends, the Mallett whispers remain alive and well for at least another week.
The "Around the League Podcast" Fantasy Football Extravaganza has landed. Tell your friends and lovers.


text: Cat Care Volunteer Across Cats Protection our feline friends looking for new homes are cared for either at our adoption centres, by volunteer fosterers in their own homes or in purpose built pens in their gardens. Our cat care volunteers are part of a passionate team that look after and meet the needs of cats whilst they are in our care. This is an exciting role for cat lovers, as our cat care volunteers get to spend time directly with the cats when cleaning their pens, helping with feeding and when enriching their lives before they find their forever homes. Closing date: 13 May 2024 View Details


text: Holly Weimar is Associate Professor and Chair of the Library Science Department at Sam Houston State University. She has taught hybrid and online courses for six years. Her research interests include technology in the school library, online education, professional development, school library programming, and family literacy. Besides her work and research, she enjoys spending time with her family.


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Teen takes control after pilot faints
ஆஸ்திரேலியாவில் விமானத்தை செலுத்திக்கொண்டிருந்த விமானி ஒருவர் திடீரென மயக்கமடைந்ததால், விமானத்தில் இருந்த இளைஞர் ஒருவர் விமானத்தை ஓட்டும் நிலை ஏற்பட்டது. நியூ சவுத் வேல்ஸ் மாகாணத்தை சேர்ந்தவர் டெரக் நெவிலி. விமானியான இவருக்கு வயது 61.
Teen takes control after pilot faints
A teenager described on Sunday how he took the controls of a light plane for more than half an hour after the pilot passed out during a joy flight over rural Australia. Troy Jenkins, 19, said the single-engine Cessna 150 was only 10 minutes into a flight from the New South Wales state farming town of Forbes on Saturday afternoon when the pilot Derek Neville, 61, lost consciousness. Jenkins said he had taken the controls before while flying with Neville, a family friend. Jenkins flew circles around Forbes airport at a steady altitude of 610 meters (2,000 feet) for around 45 minutes before the pilot came to. "Keeping it up wasn't a problem, it was the landing part I wasn't sure of," Jenkins told The Associated Press. "I was pretty scared." "I thought I had to save myself and him. It was quite an experience," he added. Jenkins said he had landed a plane only once before and that was with Neville's supervision. Jenkins was relieved that the pilot had regained consciousness moments before they were to land. "He sort of poked me in the right direction and we both brought it down," Jenkins said. They landed safely. Jenkins was also grateful for the help of pilot Paul Reynolds, who heard Jenkins' radio calls for help and came to the rescue. Reynolds flew alongside the Cessna and provided advice over the radio. "I just heard on the radio someone calling: 'Help, help,'" Reynolds told Nine Network television. "What I got him to do was essentially just maintain that altitude and fly around the airfield," he added. After the landing, Neville was flown to Orange Base Hospital, where he remained on Sunday. His wife Merle Neville said he had undergone heart and brain scans, but doctors had yet to diagnose the problem. "We've had a good outcome," she said, referring to the successful landing. Police Detective Sergeant Steve Howard said the air emergency could have resulted in tragedy if the pilot had not regained consciousness when he did. "I do believe the passenger had some prior experience in the plane and had landed the plane with some assistance in the past, but we were just very fortunate that the pilot did come to," Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Air safety investigators plan to interview both the pilot and passenger on Tuesday, Australian Transport Safety Bureau spokesman Stuart Godley said.


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- Medical Waste Home
- Disposal
- Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988
- Publications
- Frequent Questions
- 2009 H1N1 Flu
- State Programs
Medical Waste Publications
EPA has compiled an extensive list of documents, factsheets, and other resources related to medical waste management:
General Publications
You will need Adobe Reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.Community Options for Safe Needle Disposal (PDF) (8 pp, 590K)
Describes safe needle disposal programs that communities and states might adopt. Offers examples of successful programs including: drop-off collection sites, community household hazardous waste collection centers, residential "special waste" pickups, syringe exchange programs, mail-back services, and home needle destruction devices.
Protect Yourself, Protect Others: Safe Options for Home Needle Disposal (PDF) (2 pp, 257K) | Chinese Translation (PDF) (2 pp, 804K) | Spanish Translation (PDF) (4 pp, 485K)
Describes disposal options for people who use syringes and other medical sharps at home. Contains information on six types of services available to home users: drop-off collection sites, community household hazardous waste collection centers, residential "special waste" pickups, syringe exchange programs, mail-back services, and home needle destruction devices.
Handle with Care: How To Throw Out Used Insulin Syringes and Lancets at Home - A Booklet for Young People with Diabetes and Their Families (PDF) (10 pp, 872K) | Text Version (text file) (3 pp, 6K)
Offers easy directions and illustrations for young people with diabetes on how to protect family members and waste handlers from injury, while keeping the environment clean and safe.
US Post Office Bulletin: Infectious Substances (PDF) (7 pp, 762K)
Provides postal regulations.
Finding the Rx for Managing Medical Wastes
This Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) report evaluates medical waste issues in the broader context of a waste management policy for the nation. The document examines waste reduction and recycling options for medical waste management, as well as incineration and non-incineration treatment alternatives.
- Table of Contents (PDF) (10 pp, 580K)
- Introduction (PDF) (8 pp, 1.2MB)
- Chapter 1: Characterizing Medical Wastes and Applying a Comprehensive Management Technology (PDF) (10 pp, 1.3MB)
- Chapter 2: Before Treatment: Waste Reduction and Recycling (PDF) (8 pp, 1.1MB)
- Chapter 3: Non-incineration Treatment Technologies and Trends (PDF) (14 pp, 1.4MB)
- Chapter 4: Incineration Treatment and Trends (PDF) (17 pp, 1.4MB)
- Chapter 5: Special Treatment Issues (PDF) (5 pp, 667K)
- Chapter 6: Comparisons of Treatment Technologies (PDF) (3 pp, 416K)
- Appendices and References (PDF) (10 pp, 1.2MB)
Treatment Technologies Guidance Documents
Guidance for Evaluating Medical Waste Treatment Technologies -- DRAFT
This report provides guidance on evaluating medical waste treatment technologies based on lessons learned in EPA's studies.
- Table of Contents (PDF) (11 pp, 586K)
- Introduction (PDF) (10 pp, 946K)
- Incineration (PDF) (14 pp, 1MB)
- Steam Autoclave Treatment (PDF) (6 pp, 592K)
- Chemical Treatment (PDF) (13 pp, 996K)
- Non-Ionizing Radiation Treatment (PDF) (4 pp, 372K)
- Worker Health and Safety (PDF) (5 pp, 487K)
- Facility Maintenance (PDF) (13 pp, 849K)
Bioemissions from Medical Waste Treatment Technologies: Evaluation of Indicator Microorganism Recovery -- DRAFT
EPA initiated this second research study in April 1993 to develop protocols for "Evaluation of Potential Biological Emissions from Alternative Medical Treatment Technologies."
- Table of Contents (PDF) (9 pp, 461K)
- Pages 1-9 (PDF) (9 pp, 732K)
- Pages 10-15 (PDF) (8 pp, 227K)
Evaluation of Potential Biological Emissions from Alternative Medical Treatment Technologies -- DRAFT
This document was the last of three draft research reports in July 1993 concerning alternative treatment technologies for medical waste.
- Table of Contents (PDF) (6 pp, 259K)
- List of Tables & Figures (PDF) (5 pp, 536K)
- Pages 1-10 (PDF) (10 pp, 822K)
- Pages 11-20 (PDF) (10 pp, 842K)
- Pages 21-30 (PDF) (10 pp, 722K)
- Pages 31-40 (PDF) (10 pp, 783K)
- Pages 41-50 (PDF) (10 pp, 731K)
- Pages 51-57 (PDF) (7 pp, 499K)
- Appendix A (Table of Contents) (PDF) (4 pp, 236K)
- Appendix A pages 1-9 (PDF) (9 pp, 886K)
- Appendix A pages 10-17 (PDF) (8 pp, 687K)
- Appendix B (PDF) (8 pp, 727K)
Alternate Treatment Technologies Fact Sheets -- DRAFT
- Steam Autoclave (PDF) (1 pg, 126K)
- Microwave Irradiation (PDF) (1 pg, 131K)
- Chemical or Mechanical/Chemical Treatment (PDF) (1 pg, 401K)
- Radiofrequency Irradiation (PDF) (1 pg, 113K)
Technical Assistance Manual: State Regulatory Oversight of Medical Waste Treatment Technologies
State and Territorial Association on Alternate Treatment Technologies (STAATT) report establishing a framework or guideline that defines medical waste treatment technology efficacy criteria and delineates the components required to establish an effective state medical waste treatment technology approval process.
- Introduction & Table of Contents (PDF) (7 pp, 442K)
- Pages 1-10 (PDF) (10 pp, 1.2MB)
- Pages 11-20 (PDF) (10 pp, 987K)
- Pages 21-30 (PDF) (10 pp, 965K)
- Pages 31-39 (PDF) (9 pp, 765K)
- Appendix A (PDF) (17 pp, 1.2MB)
- Appendix B (PDF) (12 pp, 853K)
- Appendix C (PDF) (7 pp, 466K)
- Appendix D (PDF) (9 pp, 639K)
Innovative Hazardous Waste Treatment Technologies: A Developer's Guide to Support Services
EPA recognizes the challenges faced by hazardous waste treatment technology developers and vendors. This booklet provides information on sources of assistance and support in bringing technologies from the proof of concept stage to the commercialization stage. It includes information on sources of grant funding and technical assistance, and identifies incubators, test and evaluation facilities, and university-affiliated research centers that can provide a range of technology development and evaluation services.
- Table of Contents (PDF) (7 pp, 573K)
- Chapters 1, 2, & 3 (PDF) (11 pp, 1.3MB)
- Chapter 4 (PDF) (9 pp, 1.3MB)
- Chapter 5 (PDF) (11 pp, 1.4MB)
- Order Form (PDF) (3 pp, 193K)


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(+91) 8375978883, 9873452209, 9311692209
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The best diet clinic in Delhi for your better health ! Nutri Advice is one the top and leading diet clinic that gives the best diet & nutrition plan for your health by Dietician in Delhi.
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Dietitian Nidhi Diet Clinic helps you to lose weight & stay slim healthy with the help of nutrition diet programs or with the diet charts which she provides. Dietitians (Dietician) Nidhi is trained and Nutritionists who help you to get your body in good shape and healthy with is the effect of diet plans which suites to your body.
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text:
MOSCOW — An airliner carrying 62 people from Dubai crashed early Saturday while landing in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in strong winds, killing all aboard, Russian officials said.
A list published by the Emergencies Ministry showed the 737-800 was carrying 55 passengers and seven crew members, whose nationalities were not immediately confirmed. Igor Oder, head of the Emergencies Ministry's southern regional operations, said in a televised briefing that all had been killed.
The plane belonged to the budget carrier FlyDubai.
In a statement, the budget carrier confirmed that flight FZ981 crashed on landing and said that there are fatalities.
"We are doing all we can to gather information as quickly as possible. At this moment our thoughts and prayers are with our passengers and our crew who were on board the aircraft," the airline said.
Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region some 950 kilometers south of Moscow, was quoted by Russian news agencies as telling local journalists that the plane crashed about 250 meters short of the runway. News reports said the plane caught fire after the crash.
The cause of the crash was not immediately determined, but Golubev said: "By all appearances, the cause of the air crash was the strongly gusting wind, approaching a hurricane level."
State news agency Tass said weather data from the area indicated that winds were anywhere from 14 to 22 meters per second (30-50 miles per hour) at the time of the crash and that there was light rain.
Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for the flight-tracking website Flightradar24, told The Associated Press that the plane missed approach then entered a holding pattern and tried to land again before contact was lost.
On Oct. 31, a Russian airliner blew up in the air over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 aboard. Investigators determined it was destroyed by a bomb onboard.
Russian news reports said most of those aboard were Russian tourists but there were unspecified foreigners aboard as well.
FlyDubai is a budget airline launched in 2008 by the government of Dubai, the Gulf commercial hub that is part of the seven-state United Arab Emirates federation. Its first flight took to the skies in 2009.
It shares a chairman with Dubai's government-backed Emirates, the Middle East's biggest airline, though the two carriers operate independently and maintain separate operations from their bases at Dubai International Airport, the region's busiest airport.
FlyDubai's fleet is dominated by relatively young 737-800 aircraft, the same model as the one that crashed. The airline says it operates more than 1,400 flights a week.
The airline has expanded rapidly in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Dubai is a popular tourist destination for Russian visitors, who are attracted by its beaches, shopping malls and year-round sunshine. Like other nationalities, many Russian expatriates live and work in Dubai, a city where foreigners outnumber locals more than 4-to-1.
It has been flying to the southern city of Rostov-on-Don since 2013.
FlyDubai has a good safety record. In January 2015, one of its planes was struck on the fuselage by what appeared to small-arms fire shortly before it landed in Baghdad. That flight landed safely with no major injuries reported.
To reach us about this article or another matter, please contact us by e-mail at: [email protected].


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Private renting for tenants: tenancy agreements
A tenancy agreement is a contract between you and a landlord.
It lets you live in a property as long as you pay rent and follow the rules. It also sets out the legal terms and conditions of your tenancy. It can be written down or oral (a spoken agreement).
A tenancy can either be:
- fixed-term (running for a set period of time)
- periodic (running on a week-by-week or month-by-month basis)
Rights and responsibilities
Both you and your landlord have certain rights and responsibilities, whether or not you have a tenancy agreement.


text:
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Hawaiian Shirt
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text:
Specifications / Performance
Vibe-S — Algae
Decora XI
The Decora XI Collection is the next generation of Ink Resistant Top Coat also allowing Indigo (Jeans) Dye to be simply removed with mild soap and water. This new vinyl features the Forbid Technology which is not just a surface treatment but is uniquely cross-linked into the structure of the vinyl allowing the vinyl to be cleaned over and over again. The Decora XI Collection features Five Patterns in 87 colors. This Collection offers High Performance, Cleanability and Guest Room Price Points.
Item Notes:
County of Origin: Taiwan FORBID™ is not just a surface treatment but is uniquely cross-linked into the structure of the vinyl which will allow the vinyl to be cleaned over and over again.
Fabric Categories:
Design Categories:
Alternate Style Colors: 20
Linear Weight (oz/yd):
Linear Weight (g/m):
Linear Width (in):
Linear Width (cm):
Area Weight (oz/yd²):
Area Weight (g/m²):
Fiber Content:
100% PVC Face/Back 100% Polyester
Put Up Yards:
Flammability Tests Passed:
Durability Tests Passed:
Minimum Abrasion Resistance ASTM D4157 / 100,000 | |
Anti-Bacterial / Microbial AATCC 147/ ASTM G-21 | |
Breaking Strength ASTM D751-06 | |
Cold Crack CFFA-6, 191A-Method 5874 | |
Color Fastness To Crocking AATCC 8 (Wet: 4, Dry: 4) | |
FORBID Stain Resistance | |
Mildew Resistant ASTM G21-09 | |
Tear Strength ASTM D2261-07A | |
UV Resistance 650hrs (AATCC 16, option 3) |
Fire Retardant:
Design Layout:
Cleaners / Disinfectants:
Due to color variations on different monitors and color printers, before making exact color and texture matches, we recommend that you request an actual sample to ensure proper color representation.
Please contact your Regional Representative for more information.
NOTE: Many LCD and LED monitors can not display colors accurately due to a limited color gamut.


text: UR Medicine / Neurosurgery / Services / Treatments / Programmable Shunt Programmable Shunt For more information, please visit our Pediatric Neurosurgery Program site What is it? A programmable shunt is a type of ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) that is used for treatment for hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is a neurological disease literally meaning water on the brain and can be very disabling. This fluid (cerebrospinal fluid or CSF) is normally made then reabsorbed at certain rates and when these rates are not balanced, it can lead to an increase in fluid causing pressure and resulting in neurologic symptoms. CSF normally resides in cavities in the brain called ventricles. The purpose of a programmable shunt is to drain this excess fluid from the ventricle. This is achieved by placing a tube into the ventricle (in the brain) which drains the fluid to the abdomen. A programmable shunt has an adjustable valve which prevents the fluid from moving in the wrong direction and only lets fluid drain when the pressure is too high. What is its goal? The goal of a programmable shunt is to reduce the abnormally high pressure inside the brain. This is achieved by placing a catheter in the brain that allows drainage of excess fluid into the abdomen. A programmable shunt has an adjustable valve which allows you to modify the amount of fluid drained after the shunt is implanted. How is it done? The patient goes to sleep with general anesthesia. A small hole is made in the skull on the top of the head, behind the hairline. A small catheter is directed into the fluid filled cavity in the brain (ventricle). Tubing is tunneled to a place behind the ear where a valve is placed to regulate the flow of fluid. Tubing is again tunneled down to the belly (peritoneum) where the fluid can drain freely and be absorbed by the body. The surgery usually takes around an hour and a half to perform. What are the risks? The major risks of the procedure are bleeding, infection, damage to normal brain tissue and need for future operation. The risk of bleeding is immediate and will be detected while the patient is still in the hospital. If there is excessive bleeding, a larger surgery may be required to prevent brain damage. When the shunt is placed, the catheter must pass through normal brain tissue to reach the fluid cavity (ventricle). The shunt is usually placed in a part of the brain that can tolerate this manipulation, but rarely patients can develop weakness, sensory or visual changes, and speech difficulty. The risk of infection and obstruction is the most common problem with VPS. The shunt tubing is a foreign object in the body which can make it impossible for the body to kill the bacteria growing on the tubing. If a shunt becomes infected, it needs to be removed and replaced with a entirely new system. If obstruction occurs, only the part of the shunt system that does not work needs to be replaced. What is the success rate? The success rates depend on the age of the patient and the reason why the shunt is needed. Generally, there is around a 50% failure rate for ventriculoperitoneal shunts. The shunt tubing can become infected or obstructed requiring surgical revision. Endoscopic third ventriculosotomy (ETV) is an alternative treatment that has a higher success rate but only available for select patients (see endoscopic third ventriculosotomy). How long will I stay in the hospital? Depending on the clinical situation, patients are able to go home 2-7 days after surgery. What is special about the way we deliver this treatment? The Rochester Neurosurgery Partners shunt failure rates are among the lowest in the country. They are currently performing a study to calculate their exact revision rate and to determine which factors lead to a good outcome. The materials and technology used for this procedure are the newest and most advanced. This includes the use of antibiotic coated shunt catheters and MRI guided neuronavigation.


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Sri Lanka: Propaganda, intimidation and voter rights of IDPs denied in presidential election
26 January 2010: Tension surrounds today's presidential election, especially for the press, which has had to face many obstacles. Use of the state media to support President Mahinda Rajapaksa's campaign for another term has been accompanied by harassment and violence against privately-owned opposition media, culminating in the 24 January abduction of political reporter Prageeth Eknaligoda. Reporters Without Borders appeals to both sides to make every effort to avoid an Iran-style scenario in which the challenging of a questionable election result leads to a cycle of demonstrations and repression in which the press would clearly be one of the victims.
Monitoring of state TV stations Rupavahini and ITN by Reporters Without Borders shows they have been abused by the president and his aides to a rarely-seen degree to promote his campaign.
More than 96.7 per cent of the 1,539 minutes (about 25 hours) of news programmes monitored on these two stations was given over to the activities of the incumbent and his followers. Less than 3.3 per cent was accorded to the opposition, including Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the leading opposition candidate. The two stations were monitored for the seven days ending 24 January.
Rupavahini and ITN were mobilised during this period – and even after the official end of the campaign – with the aim of eclipsing Gen. Fonseka's campaign. On 24 January, for example, two days before the poll, both stations carried a two-hour live broadcast of a religious ceremony in which President Rajapaksa was participating.
Although a crucial day, the opposition got no air-time at all on 24 January, while the president and his supporters got a total of 47 minutes and 45 seconds on Rupavahini and 101 minutes and 45 seconds on ITN. During ITN's 6 p.m. Tamil-language news programme, for example, the president and his political allies, especially his Tamil allies, got 13 minutes and 10 seconds while the opposition, which is backed by the Tamil National Alliance, was totally ignored.
ITN's Sinahalese-language news programme at 7 p.m. accorded 4 minutes and 50 seconds to the president and 6 minutes and 10 seconds to his government while completing ignoring the 20 other candidates.
"Such an imbalance in the coverage of the candidates seriously undermines the democratic credibility of this presidential election, the first since the end of the civil war," Reporters Without Borders said. "It was hoped the government would do better than this, but it failed to resist the temptation of exploiting the state media. We urge the international community, especially the electoral observation missions, to clearly denounce these abuses in their reports."
Although security concerns may be valid, Reporters Without Borders is astonished that the government has declared the Rupavahini and Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation buildings "high security areas" on election day and the day after. Gen. Devapriya Abeysinghe, SLBC's associated director, has obtained full government powers and has requisitioned a limited number of employees for the two days.
Reporters Without Borders has learned of several incidents in addition to journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda's abduction (http://www.rsf.org/spip.php?page=ar...). The Criminal Investigation Department, for example, asked for warrants to search the headquarters of Wijeya Newspapers, publishing the Daily Mirror, on the grounds that the company had printed "defamatory" posters and other material. A Colombo court rejected the request yesterday.
A bus carrying journalists to cover an event in which Gen. Fonseka was participating on 24 January was blocked for several hours by military police at Kiribathgoda (near Colombo). The police took down their names and addresses.
The Colombo home of Tiran Alles, a leading opposition member and editor of the now-closed Sinhalese-language weekly Mawbima, was bombed on 22 January. In June 2007, after being accused by President Rajapaksa and his brother, defence minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa, of being a Tamil Tiger spokesman, Alles was detained for two weeks. Mawbima, which at the time was one of the country's few critical publications, was forced to close due to economic pressure.
Finally, in the northern city of Jaffna, a newspaper editor speaking on condition of anonymity told Reporters Without Borders that the pressure has increased there, especially from pro-Rajapaksa groups. Government minister Dougla Devananda told a political meeting that all Jaffna was under his control "except Uthayan," referring to a Tamil newspaper that has repeatedly been the target of violence in the past. Uthayan's police protection was withdrawn for several hours on 22 January for unexplained reasons.
Four people have been killed in the course of more than 300 serious incidents of electoral violence in Sri Lanka since December.
Centre for Monitoring Election Violence
Monitoring election violence in Sri Lanka
CMEV Briefing: Inability of Authorities to Address the Voter Rights of IDPs and Others in the North
26 January 2010: CMEV was informed that approximately 24,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) presently living in government run camps and with host families were also registered on the 2008 electoral register. Out of this number, 16,000 IDPs applied to cast their vote within the Vavuniya district while 8,000 were eligible to cast their vote in areas such as the Killinochchi district at today's Presidential election. CMEV was informed by the Government Agent (GA) Vavuniya that 55% of IDPs in Vavuniya were able to cast their vote with only 8.3% voting in Mullaitivu district. CMEV was also informed by the authorities in Jaffna that there was a turnout of 22% in the Jaffna district and 3.5% in Killinochchi.
CMEV in its Election Day Media Comminque No 3 raised problems faced in the north and especially those faced by IDPs with regard to voting, including insufficient identity documents and the authorities failing to organise transport for them to travel to other areas to cast their vote. CMEV further notes that concerns of IDPs and returnees toregarding the exercise of the franchise were raised with the Election Commissioner and other government officials earlier and proposals presented to them to address these concerns.
CMEV raises continuing concerns regarding the exercise of the franchise by IDPs. These are listed below.
- CMEV was informed that hundreds of IDPs were unable to cast their vote in Killinochchi as a direct result of inefficient transport arrangements. For example, in Arunuchalam and Ramanathan camps 300 IDPs waited from 6am till 1pm for buses to arrive to transport them to Killinochchi to vote. The buses only reached the camps at 1.30pm and the IDPs were transported to Killinochchi at 3.55pm, allowing them only 5 minutes to vote. Unfortunately these 300 IDPs were not allowed to vote on the grounds that the polls had closed. CMEV has been informed that they have no way of returning to the camps in Vavuniya and are presently stranded in Killinochchi without accomodation. This is only one case which illustrates the problems faced by IDPs living in Vavuniya with a vote in Killinochchi.
- CMEV was also informed that IDPs who were promised transport by the authorities faced several difficulties in travelling to the cluster centres in the Vanni. At the present moment there still remain restrictions on freedom of movement of IDPs which have been previously challenged by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a constituent member of CMEV. CMEV was informed that IDPs were issued tokens for transport on election day on the 25th night and early 26th morning. At around 4am on the 26th, IDPs were informed through the public address system that they were required to be present sharp at 6am at a specific location to board the buses provided by the authorities. As a result all those who were eligible to travel gathered at 6am to board the bus but were kept waiting for several hours with no information as to what arrangements had been made. Only at 10am did the first few buses arrive to transport IDPs to cluster centres. The second contingent of busses arrived around 1.30pm. During the time period between the first contingent of buses and the second, there was no information given to IDPs regarding voting procedures.
- CMEV monitors further reported that IDPs who were travelling to Killinochchi were stopped at the Omanthai check point and checked by military which further delayed their travel. This checking seems unnecessary when IDPs had left government camps where they are regularly checked. They should have been directly transported to the polling centres so that they could vote without delay.
- There were several cases where IDPs who are presently in camps with a vote in Vavuniya had no public transport to polling centres and as a result had to walk a distance of around 7km. This is an issue that could have been dealt with previously and steps taken to ensure that all IDPs who needed transport were provided with it. CMEV was informed that as a result of not having adequate public transport, many turned back and did not cast their vote.
- Further and this is pertinent in the above cited case, IDPs have expresed fear of repercussions if they could not show proof of having voted after having left camps in order to do so, such as the indelible ink mark on the fingers of all those who have.
- CMEV received reports that several residing in Jaffna with a vote in Killinochchi were unable to vote. This was mainly due to insufficient transport arrangements for IDPs and those having returned to Jaffna being unable to travel to cluster centres to cast their vote. CMEV has been unable to obtain the exact figure of the numbers involved in this regard.
Upon receiving the above complaints, CMEV contacted the GA Vavuniya and Killinochchi. According to the GA of Vavuniya, 70 buses to transport IDP voters and 40 buses to transport IDPs within Vavuniya as well as 30 to other areas were deployed respectively. The GA Killinochchi stated that efforts had been coordinated with officials in Vavuniya and Jaffna to transport voters. Authorities in Jaffna also confirmed that arrangements had been organised. Though these measures may have been taken, CMEV notes that many were disenfranchised as a result of delays and shortcomings.
Those affected and displaced by the conflict and presently living with host families and in camps and those returned to areas in the North and East need special attention. This has been continuously raised by CMEV and its constituent members. Today's effective disenfranchisement of several hundred of those most affected by the conflict needs immediate attention.
CMEV also raises concern about the security situation in several parts of the North where explosions took place in the course of election day which impacted voter turnout. The deterrent effects of the resulting fear on voter turnout and the inability of many to cast their vote, has compromised the integrity of the electoral process in the north. It is especially regrettable given the imperatives of reconciliation and national unity in this our first post war election. We strongly urge the Election Commissioner to take the necessary steps to prevent this from occuring in the forthcoming General Election and stop short of calling for a repoll of the north in this presidential election because we are not in possession of the exact figure of effective disenfranchisement.


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Any property owned under any contract or by any combination, or pursuant to any conspiracy (and being the subject thereof) mentioned in section 1 of this title, and being in the course of transportation from one State to another, or to a foreign country, shall be forfeited to the United States, and may be seized and condemned by like proceedings as those provided by law for the forfeiture, seizure, and condemnation of property imported into the United States contrary to law.
(July 2, 1890, ch. 647, § 6, 26 Stat. 210.)


text: Joe Landman wrote: > > Investigating zfs on a Solaris 10 5/08 loaded JackRabbit for a > customer. zfs performance isn't that good relative to Linux on this > same hardware (literally a reboot between the two environments) > > I am looking for ways to tune zfs, or even Solaris so we can hopefully > get to parity with Linux (less than 50% of Linux performance now c.f. > http://scalability.org/?p=640 ). What I have found online has been > http://www.solarisinternals.com/wiki/index.php/ZFS_Evil_Tuning_Guide > > and a number of others. Even the dangerous tuning methods mentioned > in this document (turning off Zil), don't really help all that much. > > This is for an IO intensive application with multiple threads doing > 1-100 GB streaming reads. > > Offline from others I have heard similar issues, so if someone knows > how to tweak the OS or FS to get good performance, please fire me over a > pointer ... I would appreciate it ! > We have seen the same issue on (non Sun) high density storage servers which performed correctly with RHEL5 & XFS but comparatively poorly with Solaris 10 & ZFS. ZFS seems to be extremely sensitive to the quality/behaviour of the driver for the HBA or RAID/disk controller, especially with SATA disks (for NCQ support). Having a driver is not enough, a good one is required. Another point is that ZFS requires a different configuration "mindset" than "ordinary" RAID. Have you noticed the "small vdev" advice on the Solaris Internals Wiki ? This is probably the single most important hint for ZFS configuration. IOW, most of the time you can't just use the same underlying configuration with ZFS as the one you (would) use with Linux. This means that you may need to trade usable space for performance, sometimes in more drastic ways than with ordinary RAID. Finally, like it or not, ZFS is often more happy/efficient when it does the RAID itself (no "hardware" RAID controller or LVM involved). Loïc. PS: regarding your other message in this thread (and your blog), you seem confused: the "open source" OS is OpenSolaris, not Solaris 10. The benchmark publishing restriction only applies to Solaris 10 (see <http://www.opensolaris.com/licensing/opensolaris_license/>). PPS: while I dislike Sun's policy, I specifically remember being told by someone from a DOE lab (who did actually evaluate your product about 18 months ago) that you didn't want their unfavorable benchmarks results to be published. You can't have it both ways. -- | Loïc Tortay <tortay at cc.in2p3.fr> - IN2P3 Computing Centre |